KILLER CIRCA 1850S MILITIA BELT PLATE!!

[Steve in PA]

Saturday I wanted to get out for a while, but my options are limited this time of year. I drove down to a circa 1790-1815 house site hoping that the farmer had cut the hay. He had cut it, but he hadn’t bailed it yet, so that field was unhuntable. So I drove over to another of his farms that has a standing, but abandoned, house on it that looks like it could date to the 1830s. I call this place the buckle graveyard because all I ever find here is horse tack buckles. I have dug about two dozen horse tack buckles here, but I have never found anything good, not even an Indian Head penny.

I had only been detecting a few minutes when I got a sweet signal on the Deus, dug down about 6 inches, and pulled out a modern bullet. I thought this can’t be what I was hearing, so I checked the hole again and the sweet signal was still there. I dug a little deeper and still could not pick anything up with the pinpointer. Finally down about 13 inches, the pinpointer started going off. When I got to the target I thought it was probably a piece of junk as it was laying straight up and down and all I could see was an edge sticking up, When I pulled it out I was shocked to see a mid 19^th century militia plate. I had always wanted to dig one of these. This plate now ranks pretty high on my all-time favorite finds list.

Further research shows this property on the 1856 County Atlas as belonging to W. Allen. A search of militias from the county shows William Allen as a private in Company A of the Sixth Pennsylvania Militia, which mustered in on September 13^th 1862 for the defense of the State of Pennsylvania during the Antietam campaign. They marched as far east as Chambersburg, PA, encamped and awaited orders to move against the Confederates. They were mustered out on September 29^th 1862. William Allen died in 1881 and the names of other local residents appear on his will as executor and witnesses. Considering these facts, and the time frame when these buckles were popular, this is almost certainly William Allen’s militia uniform belt buckle.







Here is the plate in Michael J. O'Donnell's "American Military Belt Plates"


And here it is in it's new home


Thanks for looking and good luck out there!

[gold boy]

very neat find

[tennessee digger]

That is one GREAT find Steve. Rare plate and I vote BANNER on this one.

[Steve in PA]

That is one GREAT find Steve. Rare plate and I vote BANNER on this one.

Thanks Donnie, I appreciate the vote

[Tpmetal]

nice score!

[DownNDirty]

That's a stellar find, Steve-and you did a great job researching the provenance of it. What a thrill it must be to have recovered a completely intact militia belt plate that you know for a fact was worn by a specific soldier in the Civil War. My banner vote is in. Congratulations!

[Steve in PA]

That's a stellar find, Steve-and you did a great job researching the provenance of it. What a thrill it must be to have recovered a completely intact militia belt plate that you know for a fact was worn by a specific soldier in the Civil War. My banner vote is in. Congratulations!

Thanks for the vote D-n-D. Let me tell you the thrill was real and I'm still on Cloud 9

[GaRebel1861]

Very nice find. I'm voting banner on this one as well. Good luck!

[CRUSADER]

[Hawks88]

That is one awesome find and it looks real nice in the new home you provided for it. Congrats on a fantastic find. Someone tell me how to vote banner and I will. Thanks.

[VOL1266-X]

I voted BANNER Steve! Incredible find. Congrats, Q.

[Steve in PA]

Very nice find. I'm voting banner on this one as well. Good luck!

Thanks for the vote GaReb. From what I understand, this pattern was popular with pre-war southern militias.

That is one awesome find and it looks real nice in the new home you provided for it. Congrats on a fantastic find. Someone tell me how to vote banner and I will. Thanks.

Thank you Hawks!

I voted BANNER Steve! Incredible find. Congrats, Q.

Thanks Quindy, I thought you might like this one!

[Hawks88]

Hey Steve you just got my banner vote. Thanks for sharing this awesome find. We in Canada don’t get to see these type of finds very often and you just made my day. Congrats again!

[civilman1]

Excellent job Steve!! Definetly a killer find Just got my banner vote brother!

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Congrats on an incredible recovery! 13” is deep, but I guess in a field this time of year it is not too hard to dig, in the woods 13” is a challenge with roots and rocks. You must have been shocked when you saw the plate and not a beer can or chunk of old farm brass sheet metal. Belt plates are super rare in W PA so I can only imagine your surprise when you finally extracted it. You preserved it well. Definitely a Banner Find. My vote is in!!!!